Oral Answers to Questions

David Ruffley Excerpts

Monday 3rd November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr David Ruffley (Bury St Edmunds) (Con)]

9. What recent discussions he has had with his EU counterparts on measures to reduce benefit tourism.

[The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Iain Duncan Smith)]

My Ministers, officials, and I are in regular dialogue with the European Commission and other member states about the co-ordination and reform of social security. The most recent meeting was at the October Employment and Social Policy Council.

[Mr Ruffley]

The think-tank Open Europe today proposed that EU migrants’ eligibility for in-work benefits and out-of-work benefits be restricted for the first three years. Are my right hon. Friend’s EU counterparts in northern Europe sympathetic to such views?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

Although I have not read the report, Open Europe has stated what we are already discussing with Ministers of many of the other countries concerned. They are all pretty much in agreement that the present system does not give them enough leeway, and there is a general sense that they want people to contribute more before they receive benefits. That is very much the tenor of the discussion, so what the think-tank writes is pretty much what I think is going to happen in Europe.